"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
-- Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945[/QUOTE]

Great quote. And this is what I was getting at when I responded to your post about the big picture. And I certainly wasn't talking about Democrat/Republican, but the big picture full of lies--regardless of which party is telling the lies. And it is this big picture, created by political spin (lies) and media complicity or stupidity that is presented to us as the basis on which we vote. The vote is our most powerful weapon against our subjugation by the State. And if we are too busy, or too loyal to a party to seek the truth, and vote on the basis of the big picture constantly spun before our eyes, we become complicit in our own devolution into tyranny.

Both major parties practice their own brand of propaganda. I think the progressives have mastered spin technique having used it and honed it for nearly a hundred years. I think they're so good at it that they fool themselves. The Republicans are catching up, in order to survive--so that the ultimate difference between the two is shrinking. The Nazi political machine was an ultimate master of the big lie, topped, probably by the Soviets. Despots learn from each other. Our modern American despots have learned how to soften the message and the technique of rule in order to appeal to a more diverse populace. It would be impossible to make their message appeal to all the different factions, so, as Goebbels said, it is necessary to lie, and to suppress dissent. And to repeat the lies often enough so that they will be believed.

Alinsky had some good tips on suppressing dissent, including ridicule. It is such a common practice now to ridicule or demonize those who don't follow party lines, and most people have been politically and historically dumbed down to believe the lies, that the ridicule is perceived, instantly without question as being true. There are few great discussions on issues, policies, our form of government, which go beyond peremptory clichés to the true heart of the matter, for, as Goebbels said, truth is the mortal enemy of lies and so the greatest enemy of the State.

Through this long process of spin/lies/propaganda to which we have been subjected for a century, we have been transformed from a republic which depended on a free, independent, virtuous, and diverse people with virtuous leaders to a State using the big lie to persuade us that we are dependent on it; and when it says diversity it really intends uniformity; and when it says liberty it means direction by and permission of the State.

Like all the post-imperial despots, our modern guys are truly, or so they started, desirous of making life better for all, and must be authoritarian for the good of all. The masses are not capable enough, or smart enough, or in many, if not most cases, too ignorant to rule themselves. And the contemporary ruling class is composed of those few who are blessed with the wisdom, intelligence, competence (or they took the right courses) to prescribe how the rest of us live.

They are a new hybrid of oligarchy which requires our complacence and admiration, as well as acquiescence.

So when various "kooks," "crackpots," "extremists," "racists," etc., are so labeled, such as Tea Partiers, become too influential in exposing the lies and failures of our ruling class, they are ridiculed with those labels. And there needs to be no discussion about the truth of the matter. They become an enemy of the State.